Alabama Rolls And Big Blue Goes Big While Florida And Texas Fans Face Long Seasons
Not all the questions about the 2017 college football season have been answered in Week 1, but we sure did get an indication of what is likely to happen the rest of the season with several notable teams.
Here’s a rundown of the biggest winners and losers of opening weekend, along with the biggest “uh oh, we may be way overrated” team.
Biggest Winners Teams
1.) Alabama. The defense? Awesome. The special teams? Fearsome (well, except for the field goal kicker). Alabama not just dominated Florida State in the second half, its defense intimidated the Seminoles. Just wait until the offense come around – this team could be unstoppable and the rest of the SEC is saying “oh no, not AGAIN!”
2.) Michigan. The Wolverines may be for real after all. Then again, maybe Florida was just that bad. Still, the Wolverines have served notice they are a force, despite retuning only one player on defense.
3.) Ohio State. After looking confused on both sides of the ball in the first half, the Buckeyes did not panic. They simply made a few adjustments – solid coaching – and executed those changes. Thus, they won going away and have a lot of confidence going into this week’s game against Oklahoma.
4.) Clemson. The Tigers beat a cupcake the way you’re supposed to beat a cupcake. 56-3. No floundering around, no “we miss Deshaun Watson,” no causes for concern. Dabo Swinney is building a factory like Nick Saban – lose stars are replace them with more stars. Of course, the Tigers play the Tigers this week (Auburn) so we’ll see if it truly continues but the start shows this could be another championship team.
Biggest Losers Teams
1.) Florida. Just 11 yards rushing. Less than 200 yards of total offense. Anemic quarterback play (by the way, why was the media building up Malik Zaire to be a potential star; he couldn’t even start on a 4-8 team last year!). A defense that got pounded by the run. The lack of offense and lack of energy after halftime on defense will have Gators fans quickly giving up on this team. And Jim McElwain. This game turned when the Gators could not score – heck, even move an inch – after blocking a punt.
2.) Texas. The Tom Herman era has begun with a bust. The Longhorns looked the same way they did under Charlie Strong: horrible. They had pathetic special teams play – the blocked field goal returned for a touchdown was not as embarrassing has having two kickoffs rickashay of a returner’s shin – 11 penalties which were drive or touchdown killers and overall sloppy play. Just like under Strong, there were bursts of big plays but overall this team looked bad. Really bad. Longhorn fans are advised to spend a lot of time on Sixth Street and maintaining their status as a Top Party School because they won’t be doing much celebrating at the stadium.
3.) Texas A&M. It’s one thing to look awful and lose to an awful team with a new coach, yet its’ another to look great, then awful and blow a 34-point third-quarter lead as did the Aggies. Kevin Summlin, who probably could have signed a contract extension at halftime, will now be looking for a job come late October. If not sooner. #GigEm? No, more like get him outta here!
4.) Florida State IF Deondre Francois Is Lost For The Year. It’s one thing to lose the first game, and the result would not be devastating since it came to the nation’s top team, but to lose the starting quarterback would be the biggest loss of any team this opening weekend. NOTE: On Sunday, Francois was indeed declared out for the year.
Biggest “Uh Oh We May Be Way Overrated” Team
1.) USC. The Trojans were out game planned, out-coached and out-schemed by the backup Western Michigan coach (P.J. Fleck is now at Minnesota) and only its supreme depth and talent were responsible for them winning by pulling away in the middle of the fourth quarter. The supposed Heisman Trophy winner spent the day dinking balls and handing off to tailbacks rather than throwing tight spirals down the field. Western Michigan whipped USC’s defensive line – they did nothing fancy, really – and that has Trojans fans feeling very uneasy with Stanford coming to the Coliseum on Saturday.
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